The man slowly stepped closer.

“What was your mother’s name?”

Maya’s fingers remained buried in the dog’s warm fur.

“Lena.”

The man stopped breathing.

Lena was his younger sister.

She had vanished seven years earlier, and everyone believed the dog had turned vicious because she never returned.

“Maya…” His voice cracked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

The girl looked confused.

“My foster family said Mom had no relatives.”

Tears filled the man’s eyes.

“That wasn’t true.”

The dog suddenly lifted his head.

He sniffed Maya’s yellow overalls, then pulled away and began scratching beneath the barn wall.

The man knelt beside him.

“What is it, boy?”

The dog dug harder until something appeared beneath the dry soil.

A small metal box.

Maya opened it with trembling hands.

Inside was an old photograph of her mother holding her as a baby.

Beside it lay a folded note addressed to the man.

He recognized his sister’s handwriting instantly.

His hands shook as he read.

“If Maya ever comes back, the dog will know her song. Believe him. He was protecting her when they took me.”

The man looked toward the dark barn.

The Rottweiler was no longer resting.

He stood in front of Maya, growling at the locked door.

Then, from somewhere inside, a woman softly began singing the same lullaby.